FLYIN’ SOLO #11

2007 wasn’t exactly a great year for Pro Wrestling NOAH by any real metric – attendance, booking, or match quality. One of the few bright spots of that year was their co-promotion with Dragon Gate, which created some fresh matchups for the wrestlers in both groups and drummed up some interest in the GHC Jr. Tag Titles picture.

Some of these interpromotional matches were already covered with their respective cards (the 4/28 trios match and the junior tag title matches from 6/3 and 9/29) so they won’t be included here. There was also a tag match on the NOAH 4/24 card that there doesn’t appear to be footage of.

GAMMA/MAGNITUDE KISHIWADA/NARUKI DOI/MASATO YOSHINO vs. ANTHONY W. MORI/MUSHIKING TERRY/RICKY MARVIN/TURBOMAN (Dragon Gate – 1/26/07)

This isn’t so much of an actual match as it is an eight-man sprint, but they pack a lot of stuff into a short time. Everyone gets in whatever stuff they have to do and then basically gets out of the way so that the next guy can have his chance to shine. What really comes off as disappointing about this is that the NOAH guys don’t look like an especially big deal here, despite Marvin being half of the junior tag champions, and having spent quite a bit of time in Toryumon earlier in his career. Ricky and Terry do a few double teams, and Ricky does a nice dive to the floor on to Gamma, but they just seem to be going with the flow rather than trying to stand out. They work the practically mandatory sequence with the heels all charging into the corner at someone, only for the last one to miss and give the babyfaces their chance to do the same. But Terry’s knee and Ricky’s shoulderblock are the weakest looking shots of anyone. And they’re nowhere to be found during the home stretch with all four heels laying waste to Mori, culminating in a chair assisted Bakatare. Even though it’s a bit short, the match itself is still a rather fun affair, between the heat mongering, cheating, and the general insanity of some of the spots that they pull out (namely Turboman’s rana and Mori’s counter to Mag’s powerbomb). Doi and Ricky jaw with each other a bit afterwards, but it’d have been nicer to see something more develop between them (as well as Yoshino and Terry) during the actual match.

YOSHINOBU KANEMARU/NARUKI DOI/GENKI HORIGUCHI vs. KENTA/BXB HULK/RYO SAITO (NOAH - 2/15/07)

Although the crowd really didn’t get too into it, this winds up being a good match. There isn’t much of a story, other than the Doi/KENTA hate, but everyone comes in and does their bit just fine. The KENTA/Doi exchanges are the clear centerpiece here. Between KENTA booting him off the apron, their forearm and slap exchanges, and their brawl on the floor (which prevents KENTA from saving Hulk at the end), it all hints at something bigger happening between them. The only one who doesn’t add a whole lot to the match is Saito. His hot tag after Hulk had been worked over isn’t all that hot or fired up, he basically screams and then hits Genki with some chops. But he does assist KENTA with a couple of tandem spots and also saves Hulk after Kanemaru does a foul and hits his jumping DDT.

For a match with four Dragon Gate workers, this seems a little subdued, which is both good and bad. What’s really good to see is that they don’t toss out a bunch of crazy spots, that ought to be match breakers, and then treat them as throwaway near falls (like we saw in the 1/26 eight man). But that also probably plays a role in the crowd being so quiet for most of the match. The only finisher that gets brought out, before the actual finish, is Doi’s Bakatare. He plants KENTA with the Fives, but KENTA manages to avoid the running kick, and a minute later he hits a modified one when he rebounds off the ropes although he doesn’t have momentum from his usual running start. The main control segment on Hulk is fun to watch, even if it’s a bit directionless. Hulk does a decent job putting over the beating he gets, especially Doi’s ultra crafty foul in the middle of a chop exchange. But it’s a bit disappointing to see Hulk make his own comeback after getting worked over so much. The only time the match really feels like they’re going overboard is the final stretch between Hulk and Kanemaru, and even that’s not too bad. Hulk looked to be finished after the foul and DDT, where Saito had to make the save. But then Hulk escapes the brainbuster and they do a near fall sequence where Hulk hits a rana and then Kanemaru cuts back. Hulk charges into a lariat and gets planted with a brainbuster for another near fall, leaving Kanemaru to spike him with the Touch Out. It’d have been just as easy to go right for the Touch Out after the DDT, especially with how well Hulk was selling, or if Kanemaru absolutely felt the need to go in sequence from DDT to brainbuster to Touch Out, then he could have done the brainbuster near the ropes so Hulk can save himself that way.

Regardless of the middling finishing stretch, this is still a good match; both as a standalone as well as part of the NOAH/DG crossover. It may not have been the nuclear affair that Lyger tried to make the matches from the NOAH/New Japan feud into, but between seeing the DG guys reign themselves in and the KENTA/Doi interactions, this is definitely worth seeking out. ***1/4

YOSHINOBU KANEMARU/GENKI HORIGUCHI vs. SUSUMU YOKOSUKA/RYO SAITO (Dragon Gate – 5/12/07)

This might have been decent if anyone involved had given a damn about putting on a good match. There’s nothing here as far as any sort of build or story, everyone just comes in and does whatever stuff they have to do, regardless of whether or not it makes any sense. Genki fouls Susumu and he just blows it off and rushes to the corner to cut him off, but a minute later Kanemaru fouls Saito and gets a near fall from his moonsault. Susumu blocks the Beach Break, so Kanemaru comes in to assist and spikes him with a brainbuster that leaves him dazed. Genki tries for it again and still has issues getting him up for it, although at least Ryo ran in to break it up and try to give credence to the idea. But that’s pretty much this match in a nutshell, a bunch of stuff happens and virtually none of it means anything. The finish comes down to the heel ref tipping his hand and fouling Ryo so that Genki can do the backslide and get the win from a fast count. But it doesn’t feel like a last ditch effort from the heels to steal the win when everything else failed or that they had to go that route to prevent the superior team from beating them. All things considered; this is pretty much a ten story drop from the trios match from February. It’d be easy to knock Kanemaru for not showing up, but it doesn’t seem reasonable to expect him to bring a lot to the table when the three guys on their home turf couldn’t be bothered to either.

KOTARO SUZUKI/RICKY MARVIN © vs. NARUKI DOI/MASATO YOSHINO (GHC Jr. Heavyweight Tag Team Titles - Dragon Gate - 5/12/07)

While this is clearly an improvement over the Kanemaru/Genki tag, it’s still not a complete step in the right direction. It’s another case of the match being more about them pulling out their spots rather than telling a real story. Some of the spots are very impressive in both the timing and the execution of them, but they still don’t have as much meaning as they could have. Yoshino’s tricked out figure four to Suzuki and Suzuki’s interception of Doi’s Bakatare were both perfect openings for each team to shark on the other guy’s knee, and take the match somewhere, but it never happens either time. Although, if nothing else the selling is much better, and consistent, than in the earlier match. Doi hits the Bakatare on Suzuki later on for a near fall when Marvin breaks things up, and Suzuki is clearly out of it for a few minutes. He and Marvin try putting Doi through the ringer with some tandem spots, but it’s Marvin who has to do the heavy lifting because Suzuki is still dazed.

What ultimately separates this from the previous tag match is the hate involved. Suzuki and Marvin had always been presented as spunky underdogs in NOAH, but they do a complete 180 here and do such a great job heeling things up that the crowd actually starts getting behind Doi and Yoshino. Their early control segment on Yoshino has double teams right out of the Crazy Max playbook, and Suzuki takes the first opening he sees to boot Doi off the apron, and later on Ricky takes a shot at Yoshino to stop him from helping Doi, and Suzuki even starts gouging at Doi’s eyes. The only thing missing was for them to have someone like Ishimori with them at ringside to run some interference and really put the proverbial shoe on the other foot. It’s almost a little jarring to see Suzuki get fed up and trade off slaps and chops with Doi, considering he’d never really done that against the likes of Kanemaru, Sugiura, or KENTA. Of course, that’s not to say that the challenger team are suddenly presented as sympathetic babyfaces, they have no qualms about cheating either. One of their first double teams is Doi holding Suzuki in a Boston crab and Yoshino hitting a running dropkick that fouls him.

There isn’t much from them as far as building up to the finish, which is a result of the match being more about style and spots than story, but they do a decent enough job. Doi initially thwarts Suzuki’s attempt at the Blue Destiny, and then runs himself right into a spinning Tombstone (and, if nothing else, Suzuki is still moving slowly from taking the Bakatare). Suzuki hits the Blue Destiny and Yoshino makes the save, so Ricky takes Yoshino out (complete with an insane counter to the lighting spiral) and one more Blue Destiny is enough for Suzuki to get the pin. Despite its issues, this is very much worth checking out, even if it’s more fun than good. It’s really a shame that Suzuki and Marvin weren’t able to bring out this side of them in a NOAH ring, because they were an absolute blast to watch here. It’s also telling that the bulk of their title run featured them going over outsiders and freelancers, rather than potentially raising their stock in the company by going over other established names in the NOAH junior division. ***

Ricky’s injury sends the match off the rails, and it happened so early into it that there’s no way to tell if it would have been appreciably better or worse than their match from six months prior. It seemed like they were just starting to pick up some stream after Doi knocked Ricky off the apron, and Ricky responded by thwarting the DG team’s attempt to double team and he and Suzuki hitting one of their own on Doi, and then another to Yoshino. But then Ricky dives onto the floor onto Yoshino and messes up his ankle and the match pretty much dies for a bit. Suzuki, Doi, and Yoshino stay busy while Ricky is getting tended to, but the work (although nice at times) doesn’t go anywhere and isn’t intended to. They’re just filling time until they can figure out where to take things and whether or not Ricky is OK. Suzuki makes a small comeback and is able to outsmart the heels a couple of times before Yoshino’s speed and the two-on-one odds prove to be too much for him. But they use a lot of extended holds and generic brawling to eat up time.

All things considered, it’s rather impressive that Ricky returns and tries to finish the match and that he’s able to do as much as he does while he’s hobbled. A one footed dropkick is probably one of the last things that he needs to be doing in that state, and it shows how bad off he really is when Doi reverses the whip into the ropes, and he doesn’t even try to go along with it. It’s even more impressive that the heels come up with ways to seemingly take advantage of the injury without actually touching his ankle or foot. Doi aiming his kicks at Ricky’s knee and thigh are enough to get the NOAH fans riled up, and Ricky also sells (if that’s even the proper term in this case) like it’s killing him. Even the simple act of kicking out of a pin attempt with his leg hooked causes him to scream in agony. I suppose it’s something of a positive that Suzuki tags back in so that they can work a ‘proper’ finish to switch over the titles, but it really wasn’t necessary, and it just came off as being tacked on and overdone. Suzuki plants Yoshino with two consecutive Blue Destinys, which leave him open for a sliding kick from Doi. Doi does the Doi Fives from the top rope and then gets a near fall from the Bakatare and finally uses the Muscular Bomb to keep Suzuki down. One of Yoshino’s tricked out kneebars on Marvin leading to either a ref stoppage or Suzuki throwing in the towel would have worked just fine. The match as a whole isn’t anything special, but it’s commendable that the three healthy guys did as much as they could to not completely tank the match after the injury.

NARUKI DOI/MASATO YOSHINO © vs. YOSHINOBU KANEMARU/ATSUSHI AOKI (GHC Jr. Heavyweight Tag Team Titles - Dragon Gate - 12/28/07)

Who would have guessed that the best of the Doi/Yoshino title matches would be the one with Kanemaru? Aside from one instance of him being annoying, toward the end he gets hit with the Bakatare for a near fall and then counters the lighting spiral and hits a brainbuster so that he can tag Aoki, he’s exactly what he needs to be here. Even his penchant for whipping out his bigger spots manages to work because of the context. When he first starts working over Yoshino and targeting his back, Doi runs in to help his partner and Kanemaru hits a brainbuster which explains why Kanemaru is able to put Yoshino through the ringer so much, including Kanemaru and Aoki working some double teams. Later on, when Aoki manages to tag out after getting worked over, Kanemaru looks like he’s in trouble and fouls Doi in order to keep the odds even. Kanemaru has always worked his best when he plays the role of the jerk heel, and between his attitude and Yoshino’s selling, not only does he look the best that he has in quite some time, but the DG fans rally around the promotion’s top heel team. He gets in one last brainbuster just after he tags in Aoki, who starts planting Doi with seemingly every suplex that he knows. It looks like Aoki is only one or two big shots away from the upset, and Kanemaru gives Doi a brainbuster and tells Aoki to pick up the pieces.

In addition to Kanemaru, Aoki in particular looks outstanding as well, and his performance may be even better than Kanemaru’s considering that this had to have been one of his first big opportunities to show out. As expected, he’s the whipping boy for Doi and Yoshino’s control segment, and his selling is fine but nothing special. But his penchant for outwrestling his opponents into submissions was certainly surprising, especially his surprise counter of Yoshino’s Sol Naciente and his juji-gatame to Doi, complete with making sure to scoot back from the ropes and make Doi fight to get back to them. Aoki’s inexperience also shows up a few times, namely when Doi is charging for the Bakatare to Kanemaru and Aoki scurries to the side of the apron so that Doi can rebound and hit the kick, rather than either try to prevent it somehow, or just letting Doi knock him off and lend some more credence to the near fall. The finish isn’t all that far off from how Doi and Yoshino won the titles, but it plays much better this time around because everyone has seen exactly how dangerous Aoki can be, even if Doi didn’t need to pull out the Muscular Bomb this time. Yoshino gives his partner some help after Doi escapes the armbar, and then he sends Kanemaru to the floor and dives onto him. Doi does the Fives and hits a wicked Bakatare, but Aoki kicks out and looks like he has no idea where he is. But Doi doesn’t let his frustration or surprise overcome him, and he hits a second Doi Fives from the top and one more Bakatare finally ends the match.

Doi and Yoshino were already the top team in the promotion, by virtue of holding both the Twin Gate and I-J Tag Titles as well as the GHC straps, and their performance here only reinforced it. They did pretty much everything possible to make the NOAH guys, especially Aoki in the last half of things, seem perfectly capable of taking their titles. But when push came to shove, they knew what they needed to do in order to shut them down. And they did it without having to use any of the heel shortcuts and cheating that one would probably expect, and that they surely would have if this was some sort of throwaway midcard match. It’s one of the rare cases of everyone involved in the match coming out looking better. It’s really too bad that the NOAH/DG stuff was on the downswing (at least as far as the junior tag titles were concerned), because everyone seemed to be finding their groove, if this was any indication at least. ***1/2